Trap

We are watching M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie, TRAP. Now I have a love-hate relationship with Shyamalan movies. They are either brilliant or trash and there really doesn’t seem to be an in between. And he is still digging himself out of his live action Avatar the Last Airbender hole. He still owes us approximately 10 incredible movies to make up for that monstrosity. That said, I find myself morbidly fascinated with his films and I love Josh Hartnett with all my heart, so here we are.

So far loving the supportive dad vibes that are coming from Josh Hartnett. Going to a pop concert with your dad is just so adorable. The father-daughter bonding here is great and super sweet.

Dad seems to clock that something is weird with the security guards. There are so many of them and they are all clumped together in certain sections. As someone has been to a lot of concerts…that’s weird.

Official weird instance #1: Dad goes to the bathroom and checks a camera that is theoretically in their house and he has someone chained up. He also hallucinates an old lady in the bathroom.

So something happened between Riley and these other teenage girls and dad seems to want revenge for her.

Then we have a police barricade being built outside the stadium.

This pop star is VERY Taylor Swift coded. From the full stage set and outfit changes to the song introductions.

Dad seems very aware of the cops' presence. This motherfucker did something bad. Josh Hartnett is great at being super creepy. OOOOOOHHHH he's a serial killer. That’s weird. Having the main character be a villain is an interesting story choice.

This mom is crazy. Putting hands on anyone because your shitty daughter was a bitch? Get the fuck out of here. If she dies I’m cool with it.

So it's very much a bottle story, we are stuck at this concert as dad tries to figure out a way out. Shyamalan has done these before, Knock At The Cabin was one of them, so was Old. But they are far more difficult to execute. Bottle episodes in a series is interesting because at most it's 45 minutes but an hour and a half in the same place is hard to pull off.

So these girls keep coming from the backstage area looking very lethargic and sick. I am assuming that this is where the twist is going to come in. Like sure people pass out at concerts but this seems to be something more than that.

Dad gets himself in a room with this pop star as it's his only chance to escape. Josh Hartnett really does play unhinged so well. This old lady profiler seems to be getting very frustrated that she isn’t finding him. This pop star is about to outsmart this serial killer and I love that for her.

Okay we’ve left the concert and are now at the serial killer's house. Also…in what world did we go to a concert that is long enough to have an intermission and we leave and arrive home while it's still daylight? These little things are really throwing me out of the story.

This pop star did better than an FBI profiler. She’s even using his momma issues against him. When he is confronted with his family he seemingly decides to kill himself. He starts cleaning as the FBI surrounds his house. He escapes and drives away WITH THE POP STAR. See that is a very different kind of Shyamalan twist and it was in fact executed very well.

As with a lot of films lately the 3rd act was simply too long. So many movies would be brilliant if the filmmakers knew when to just stop talking. I think the intended twist was that the wife knew and is the one that tipped off the cops. But see the story was so tight before that. The twist didn’t actually need to be a twist it just could have been that he got away. But no, we just had to keep talking. Also…there is just no possible way that they would bring the kids back until after he was gone and no possible way that the FBI swat team would let his daughter run up and hug him.

Now something that I always advocate for when going to see new movies is managing your personal expectations. Don’t go to a horror movie and then say it sucked cause it was scary. You need to understand what it is you are walking into. The thing with Shyamalan movies is that people are expecting a twist. It is something that he is known for and therefore the quality of the film kind of hinges upon the quality of the twist. The twist was pretty good. It felt a lot more focused than a lot of Shyamalan’s more recent films. It was a straight up serial killer story and it was executed very well. I think the last 20 minutes was a little unnecessary and kind of stepped on a perfectly good movie. But overall it's still one of M. Night’s better films, especially recently.